Dr Robotnik and the POW Candy factory
by The Exile
Summary: After another humiliating defeat, Robotnik once again claims to have turned over a new leaf and opens a candy factory! Pre-Sonic Chronicles and Sonic Colours - ish.
1. Chapter 1

**Dr. Robotnik and the POW Candy Factory**

"The day I believe he's reformed," commented Sonic, "Is the day I believe in Father Christmas, the Tooth Fairy and that flying purple jester you keep going on about who apparently lives in your dreams."

"I'm not saying I believe him." said Tails, "I'm just saying we should take a look at what he's doing, otherwise we won't be able to figure out a way to stop him before its too late! Besides..." Tails looked away, his voice lowering to a half-whisper and his ears and tails drooping in the way they did when he was embarrassed, "He was handing out free candy. It tasted yummy."

The candy looked really delicious. His mouth was watering just looking at the round pieces of candy, bright pink in colour, with black, white pink striped wrappers. The label on the bag said they were called 'POW Candy'. There was a picture of a happy-looking Doctor Robotnik face next to the words. The effect was about as cheerful, uplifting and child-friendly as a clown – in other words, absolutely terrifying. The Doctor really needed to work on his advertising. Causing children to run away screaming was not a good way to sell candy.

"Tails, you're old enough to know not to take candy from strangers! Especially not Doctor Robotnik! Okay, so he's not really a stranger, he's our arch-adversary who we probably know better than we know half of our friends... but still... that candy could be poisoned! Or full of bombs!"

"There were plenty of people eating it." muttered Tails, "He was handing them out in the middle of Central City. I would have noticed if everyone started being poisoned and exploding. C'mon, you know how delicious and addictive candy is! I bet if it was a chilli dog factory, you would have totally freaked out and lost control!"

"Chilli dogs? Where?" Sonic sprang up from the deckchair he had been reclining in, his eyes darting around, painfully aware of the absence of a chilli dog on a plate next to him. Then he remembered that he had already eaten all the chilli dogs in the house. If hedgehogs could actually go red (Which blue ones can't. Although they can go an impressive shade of yellow.) he would have. "Ahem. Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to do a little spying. You could hide a lot of things in a factory that size. Nobody is going to be suspicious of a candy factory. Its the perfect disguise."

"He said he'll be here all week, so we could go together tomorrow morning."

"You don't want to go there now?"

"He's closed for the day. You spent the entire day playing video games again." said Tails, "Besides, I have to go and analyse the candy in my lab."

"Shouldn't you have done that BEFORE you ate some?"

"Don't be silly! Scientific analysis makes candy taste icky!" said Tails, "You don't know anything about science, do you, Sonic?"

"I'll... er... I'll keep that in mind." said Sonic, "Is the chilli dog shop closed too?"

"No, they decided to open twenty four hours. Apparently they get a lot of custom."

"I'm going out to get more chilli dogs!" declared Sonic, "We've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow, so we're gonna need provisions! And no, Tails, we're not eating the candy."

"Shouldn't you make a plan before you decide what to buy for the mission?"

"I've made it already!"

"Are you going to make a plan that takes you more than five seconds to think up?"

"Nah, it doesn't do to over-think things." said Sonic.

Tails sighed. From what he knew about this plan – and he hadn't even heard any of it yet - he already hated it. And not only because Sonic had made it up on the spur of the moment. All of Sonic's plans were like that. But a mission to invade a candy factory and they couldn't eat candy? It was like a mission to invade an underwater base where they couldn't bring anything to drink. Not that he wanted to drink sea-water. Or any kind of water in which Doctor Robotnik had possibly been anywhere near. Especially if it was bright pink. He guessed that rule should apply to candy as well. It was a shame, though.

Arguing with Sonic was no use once he had an idea firmly planted in his head. The fox watched him dash out of the room, entirely forgetting his wallet, then waited for him to return and pick it up before Tails, too, left the house to make the journey to his laboratory. It was a little way outside the residential area, where the constant explosions wouldn't wake people up.

"If Sonic won't let me eat any more, maybe I should just eat these while I have the chance..." he murmured to himself. Then he shook his head vigorously as though he thought his brain would work better if he cleared out all the dust, like a Mega Drive, "No! This candy is for science!"

* * *

Scientific analysis was just as fun as candy. Once he started up his equipment and peered into the microscope, he found himself becoming completely engrossed in his work, all thoughts of delicious sugary goodness firmly blocked from his mind. Well, almost all. He WAS staring directly at the molecular structure of said candy so it would be extremely difficult to stop thinking about it entirely, especially if he wanted to make any progress in researching it.

As far as he could tell, it was just ordinary candy. It was almost completely composed of sugar. Under the conditions of his experiments, it behaved like ordinary candy. It melted or burned under a flame, it dissolved in acid, it froze solid when he dipped it in liquid nitrogen, it glowed green when he bathed it in the very small amount of Chaos Energy he had secretly drained from an Emerald and put in a flask without telling Knuckles.

In three hours time, he found that he was making no progress, was bored out of his mind and his entire lab was coated in candy dust. The sticky substance would be near impossible to clean up, even for the prototype cleaning robot he was developing. He should have thought of that before he started making the candy explode to see what would happen but he had to be sure.

There was almost no difference between 'POW Candy' and any other of the several types of candy he had also analysed as control samples. The only thing he had found was a trace source of some kind of energy on a frequency that his machines couldn't read. It was curious. His machines were programmed to detect all sorts of strange things. Sometimes they gave unusual readings just because they were so sensitive that they could even pick things up from outer space.

It was having an interesting effect on himself as well. Since eating the candy, he felt more mentally alert and able to concentrate. Sugar usually made him hyperactive and erratic but he had been working for hours, felt wide awake and hadn't made any mistakes. It was nothing he could really tell Sonic, though. He didn't have any hard evidence to back it up so it would be unscientific of him. It looked like the candy really was safe to eat.

Persuading Sonic of this would be another matter.


	2. Chapter 2

"Yes, yes, your next batch is on its way. Its going to be late, I'm afraid. They're not been arriving as consistently lately. You have to understand that we can't always be as reliable..."

"What's not been arriving lately, hm?"

The Commander was startled but kept himself under control. He knew he had his gun pointed at the stranger's head but the dark figure was already gone by the time he turned around. Seconds later, he felt a tap on his shoulder.

"What're you aiming at?" asked a familiar voice, low and mocking but humourless, "A batch of what?"

"Mind your own business!" snapped the Commander, "Absolutely nothing to do with you! What're you doing skulking around spying in broad daylight?"

"Keeping an eye out for trouble." Shadow growled, "You can see for yourself that Robotnik's acting strange. Can't be leading up to anything good. Who's the batch going to?"

"I am conducting a business deal. I am not in the habit of discussing my confidential affairs with untrustworthy outsiders." the Commander folded his arms, "If you're concerned with Robotnik, go and spy on him."

"Oh, I'm going to do that right now. I just saw you back there looking suspicious and thought I'd take a look."

There was a loud clamor coming from the Commander's phone. He put it to his ear again, "What? No, there's no trouble. I was just rudely interrupted. He's about to leave now, aren't you?"

"You're up to something and I'm going to find out what it is." Shadow promised him.

Commander Fiale Bulzome watched the dark hedgehog clear a wall in one bound and disappear off into the city streets below. He sighed. "Compromised? I don't think so. He didn't hear anything important. Look, don't you dare threaten me! Go to another supplier? WHAT other supplier exactly? Name one other supplier! Go on!"

He paused for breath. His heart rate was climbing. It wouldn't do to let the hedgehog get him worked up. He would only start making mistakes. He was already barely suppressing the urge to start shouting at the top of his voice. Then he would get thrown out of the cafe. He had chosen the public place because he wanted to be seen as doing nothing suspicious, just having a conversation on the phone, and because it was a good vantage point to observe his business partner and possible future enemy if negotiations turned out as badly as he suspected they were about to. That and they served quite nice crumpets.

Across the street from the Cafe, next to the town square fountain, the Doctor had set up a stall with a red and white striped tablecloth festooned with candy of all kinds – jars of boiled sweets, packs of gum, rows of lollipops in a stand. Banners proclaimed, in big round letters, 'FREE CANDY!'. A gang of hyperactive children milled around the stall like ants, screaming with unfettered excitement. From behind the stall, in his specially designed egg-shaped chair, the obese scientist scattered fistfuls of candy into the crowd. He was wearing some kind of chef uniform with a red striped apron that was apparently supposed to make him look jolly. It was sickening. For it to have been any worse, there would have to be puppies. Commander Bulzome didn't know how Robotnik could stand it.

"Supply your own? Really? I'd like to see that. I really would. It would be a big help to us all if you came over here and gave us a hand..."

"Your tea, sir?" said the old lady who ran the Cafe.

"Thank you." he said, not wishing to incur the wrath of any old ladies, "Listen, your entire business depends on me so don't you dare talk to me like this again."

He hung up and stashed his phone away in his jacket pocket. What really irritated him is that the Doctor hadn't even broken character to talk to him. That jolly voice grated on his nerves. He wanted to go back to his nice warm office at GUN Central Command and hang a sign around the door that said 'no small children or candy'.

* * *

"Oh, hello, Sonic! How wonderful to see you!"

"Knock it off, Egg-Breath." replied Sonic.

"Come now, it isn't nice to call people nasty names in front of all these little kiddies!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you liked comparisons to eggs." retorted Sonic, "What're you up to?"

"Today? Oh, today is the day before the big opening ceremony! I'm giving out free candy so that everyone knows about my wonderful factory!"

"Look! Its Sonic!" a small boy pointed at him.

"Yup, that's me!" said Sonic, waving, "Sonic the Hedgehog!"

Tails sighed. Feeding Sonic's ego was as bad a move as handing Rouge a shiny thing. Soon, his companion would be posing for photographs and signing autographs and telling everyone tall stories about his adventures as the savior of the world and then nothing else would get done today. Nobody ever randomly yelled 'Look! Its Tails the Fox!'. The children were more likely to pull his tails. He really hoped they didn't.

"That's right! Your local hero loves POW Candy too!" Robotnik took the opportunity to proclaim, "Don't you, Sonic?"

Tails had to admit he liked the candy, although he wasn't sure if Sonic would be mad at him for saying so. The hedgehog hadn't relented when he had told him that the candy was harmless from a scientific point of view.

"I think these two deserve a free tour of my candy factory!" Robotnik spread his arms about in a theatrical manner, throwing some more sweets for good effect.

"Huh? What?" the hedgehog looked confused. Suddenly, there was a loud shriek. Sonic almost jumped thirty foot in the air but as it was, he only managed twenty-five.

"SONIC! That's so romantic!" yelled Amy, emerging from the crowd like a homing missile from an asteroid field. She was holding a lollipop decorated with red and white swirls, "Fancy getting us a ticket for two to a candy factory! That's such a nice idea for a date! I love candy!"

"Um... I'm afraid I can't, Amy. I already promised Tails that he could go. You know I can't disappoint him!"

"Oh, I didn't mean that it was limited to two! You can bring as many friends as you like!" said Dr. Robotnik. Sonic gave him a black glare that would have rivalled any of Shadow's darkest moods.

"Oh, its fine for Tails to come along as well!" said Amy.

"Hey, Amy, have you seen the rest of the gang?" asked the fox.

"Oh... well, I know Big is in town. He said something about Froggy wanting some candy. I met Cream and Rouge the other day for a girly shopping trip. No sign of the others, though. Why, do you think it would be fun to invite them all over?"

"Well, Robotnik did say the tour was for all of us! It'd be mean not to tell everyone!" said Tails, "Don't you think its a good idea, Sonic?"

"I... uh... I think its an excellent idea! Amy, you start searching from that end, me and Tails will start on this end." said Sonic. Before Amy could respond, he had already grabbed Tails' arm and dragged him off around the corner at high speed.

* * *

"Why are you angry, Sonic? Going in a group is safer than going alone!" said the fox, "I thought you wanted to infiltrate the factory! This is our perfect chance!"

"We are NOT going on that tour!" hissed Sonic, "Its so obviously a trap, there might as well be a big neon glowing sign with the word 'trap' written on it! You know not to meet an enemy on their own terms!"

"Well, then, why don't some of us go on the tour and some of us sneak around the back while he's distracted? Then we can see both sides of the factory at once and one group can help out the other if we end up in danger!" said Tails.

"That might work, I guess, but..." Sonic looked around, "It depends how many of us there are. If there ends up only the three of us, I am NOT going in alone with Amy!"

"Um... if you insist..." The alternatives didn't sound good either. It would mean either Tails being alone with Amy – she did nothing but interrogate him on how to win Sonic's heart, as if he would know, or try and get him to be an honorary girl for a shopping trip – or trying to persuade Amy to go alone, which would involve being yelled at.

Suddenly, Sonic tensed and looked up at the roof of the opposite building, "I'm sure I just saw something move!"

"You did? What was it?"

"I dunno. I'd better check it out!"

"Sonic..." Tails sighed. The hedgehog was already gone. At top speed, he was only a blue blur in the sky. Tails didn't bother trying to keep up with him. He wandered back over to the market stall, bracing himself for Amy's reaction to Sonic's disappearance. Staring dejectedly at the ground, he walked right into something very large and extremely fluffy.

"TAILS!" it rumbled, before embracing him in a hug that lifted him up off the floor.

"Oh, hi, Big." Tails spluttered, his sensitive nose now full of purple fur.

"Tails! There's free candy! Froggy likes the blueberry ones best!"

"I didn't know frogs liked candy." said Tails.

"I didn't know they liked blueberry candy! All his friends prefer the strawberry candy. Which do you like best, Tails?"

"Um..." Tails hadn't actually checked what flavour the candy was. Robotnik had just handed him the bag without telling him. They all just tasted of sugar to him, "The yellow ones?"

"Hey, Tails, I heard the word 'free'." Rouge looked up at him expectantly. She carried several designer shopping bags in her hands. Cream, who stood beside the bat, her expression vague but cheerful, also had shopping but she looked like she hadn't been quite as extravagant with her spending. Tails assumed Rouge had been actually buying things and not stealing them. Shoplifting was a little undignified for the master jewel thief.

"Yes, Sonic got us all a free tour of the candy factory tomorrow, but..."

"Aww, he's such a dear!" Rouge winked at him, "I love candy."

"Who doesn't?" said Tails. Then he frowned, "Come to think of it, Sonic wouldn't eat the candy. He doesn't like me eating it either. You should probably know that. He might get upset about you eating the candy while he's around as well. You know his opinion on things made by Robotnik..."

"Tails, where IS Sonic?" demanded Amy.

"Well, you see..."

Tails looked up at the rooftops. Where HAD Sonic gone off to? Was he just making an excuse to leave, was he being ultra-paranoid again or had he really seen something watching them?

* * *

_((Quick question - does the Commander have a real name? I decided from the beginning of Shadow the Hedgehog that he was secretly Fiale from Shining Force 3. They have a lot in common - grey hair, one red and one blue eye, high position of authority, not terribly pleasant... ~ author))_


	3. Chapter 3

Sonic had almost forgotten what it felt like to be racing against a worthy opponent.

Though he would never admit it in public, Shadow was capable of matching his speed. Maybe not in a straight foot race but in this environment, Sonic jumping from rooftop to rooftop, Shadow moving in and out of Chaos Control, almost gliding through the air, the blue hedgehog was having difficulty catching up with his rival. He could feel the strain on his body – his muscles ached and his heart was thumping in his chest. The pain was worth it – he felt sheer exhiliration on a scale that he hadn't known for a long time, too long.

Shadow had been missing for months now. Sonic had made a brief attempt to search for him and met with failure. Being who he was, it only took a couple of days to scour the entire Continent. Shadow really was gone. Melted off the face of the earth like his namesake. Sonic had been listless and depressed for a few days after that (by Sonic's standards, which meant he could only be bothered to run at 100mph). The girls had teased him about it, calling the pair of them 'the lovebirds' and asking whether they were going to name the baby after Sonic or Shadow. They didn't understand the value of an honorable opponent. As far as he knew, girls didn't think like that, they just stabbed each other in the back.

"Damn it, Shadow, you know its cheating to use Chaos Control!" he shouted.

"What's wrong, can't handle it, you WIMP?" Shadow yelled back.

"Not at all. I just didn't want you whining about it later when I beat you. You deserve what you get when you cheat."

"Its not even supposed to be a race! I don't even want you following me! Why don't you go away? You'd better not get in the way of what I'm doing!"

"Oh, you're doing something?" they barely had time for their conversation as they shot across the sky, a blue and black flash, almost invisible to the naked eye, "What?"

"Never you mind! I don't want you interfering!"

"I'll stop following you if you tell me what it is you're doing!"

Shadow screeched to a halt. He timed it so that Sonic couldn't gracefully come to a stop without running face first into a wall, so Sonic was forced to make an awkward last-minute jump, run past Shadow and then double back on himself.

"If you really must know, I'm spying on Doctor Robotnik."

"Oh, you like candy too? Tails has been pestering me for some all day."

"Can't you be serious for one second?" Shadow glared at him, "This 'candy factory' nonsense is almost certainly a..."

"Front for some kind of grand plan to take over the world. Possibly involving space stations and giant robots. Yeah, I know." said Sonic, "I'm already on the case."

"You wouldn't happen to have any pertinent information, would you?"

"I've got better than that." Sonic folded his arms and grinned in a way that made Shadow feel more homicidal than usual.

"What is it, does it really exist or did you make it up and what do you want in return?"

"Actually, I was wondering if you would be interested in coming along. I need all the help I can get." said Sonic, "No catch, except that I'm leader of the operation, of course, and you don't get to divert my plan. That, and no eating the candy."

"I do not eat candy, you..." Shadow bit back a vile epithet that would only have been censored in the American release, "Okay, okay, you can be 'leader'." he said the word in the most mocking, insubordinate sense of the word possible, "But if your plan is so bad that we all end up dying horribly as a result, I'm not letting you just lead me to my death like a Lemming."

"Fine." Sonic shrugged. He was confident that such a thing would never happen, "The free tour's tomorrow morning. Feel welcome to bring a friend. Not that you've got any."

"Can I bring Omega?"

"You're with OMEGA? Seriously?" Sonic's cool veneer was almost broken.

"I found him trying to hold up a battery shop. I think Robotnik's plan affected his tracking sensors and made him wander into the city, then he ran out of batteries." said Shadow, "I've told him I can help him find out what's going on with Robotnik. He seems to be working properly."

"Keep an eye on him, okay? There are small children around!" said Sonic, "He's not allowed to eat the candy either. I don't think robots can eat candy but you never know what effect it'll have on him."

"I don't need you to tell me how to handle robots." said Shadow, "I'm bored of this conversation now and I have better things to do. See ya!"

"Tomorrow morning! Don't forget!" Sonic yelled after him. He waited a few seconds to make sure Shadow was really gone, then sat down and caught his breath.

* * *

"Okay, so the plan is this." said Sonic, pointing to the diagram that Tails had helped him draw and then set up on an overhead projector for him, "Myself, Tails, Amy, Cream and Big will go in through the front door, under the cover of being there to see the tour. Shadow, Omega and Rouge will go through the back door while Robotnik is distracted."

"Affirmative." said Omega, making a 'beep' sound, "Engaging stealth mode."

Sonic briefly wondered what was the point of a stealth mode that required you to actually say in a loud voice 'engaging stealth mode' and then make a 'beep' sound.

"Hey, what's this? I wanted to see the tour as well!" Rouge pouted.

"Your stealth and infiltration skills as a..." Sonic tried to think of a less insulting word for 'thief', "... Thief will make you invaluable in the covert side of the operation. I can't really arrive without Tails and Amy without looking suspicious, now that Robotnik has seen me invite you both."

"Hey, are you trying to say you were thinking of uninviting me?" Amy gave him a look that Sonic had only ever seen once before, done by Omega just before he said 'Engaging Genocide Mode' and then went 'beep'.

"It was an example, Amy, an example. I would never do such a terrible thing. Now, Big, we have to admit, just isn't very stealthy..."

"Yeah, Froggy always starts croaking when anything exciting happens and its gives me away." said Big, "Naughty Froggy!"

"... And Cream … well, Amy and Cream work well together as a team." the rabbit smiled when he said that. He was relieved that he had said the right thing to her. Upsetting Cream felt like kicking a puppy, "Shadow, Omega, you're both also suited better to stealth operations, what with Shadow being almost as fast as me, Omega having a cloaking shield and both of you being incredibly antisocial."

"Diplomacy software offline." agreed Omega.

"My team will go in first, then the second team goes in once Robotnik is out of sight. We'll use these communicators that Tails designed if either group is in any trouble." Tails held up the communicators for everyone to see, "Tails, you explain to the others how the communicators work."

"You press the button." explained Tails.

"So, does everyone understand my plan?" asked Sonic.

"I still don't like it!" said Rouge, "What if there's more free candy! We might see, like, prototype candy that isn't released anywhere else!"

"Don't worry, Rouge, I'll save you some candy!" Cream told her.

"How many times do I have to say that it isn't a good idea to eat the candy?" said Sonic.

"Sonic, drop it. We're eating the candy." said Amy in that dangerous voice of hers.

"Oh, fine, eat the candy! Don't blame me if you mutate into zombies!" he sighed, "Rouge, you'll be in a better position to get candy than us. What if Robotnik DOESN'T give out any more candy? You'll have to acquire some for yourself, won't you?"

"You have a point." said Rouge, "And I can find the really hidden prototype candy that Robotnik doesn't want us to see."

"And the secret plans for world domination." Sonic reminded her.

"Yeah, that too." said Rouge.

"Right, is that everything out of the way?"asked Sonic. They all nodded their heads, "Good. I can stop talking. At last."

"We're going to a candy factory!" said Cream, bouncing up and down so that her ears started flapping and Cheese almost fell out of her pocket.

"Sonic, there's something I ought to tell you. Something that's been bugging me." said Shadow. He had said virtually nothing throughout the meeting. He just lounged against the wall, his arms folded, brooding.

"Do you need a private moment together?" asked Rouge. Shadow glared at her once, then pointedly ignored her.

"I saw the Commander the other day." he told Sonic, "He was up to something. I'm sure of it."

"Do you think it was related to our mission?"

"I'm not certain. I didn't get to overhear exactly what he said. All that I know is he's up to no good and I don't think its a coincidence that both GUN and Robotnik are moving at once."

"Well, I doubt they're working together. GUN is even more of an enemy to Robotnik than we are." Tails pointed out.

"Yeah, don't remind me of that incident." Shadow growled, "Whether or not they're working together, they're both more trouble than they're worth. I wouldn't be surprised if we had to deal with GUN at some stage. I'm just warning you that we should watch our backs."

"Hah, don't worry. I never let my guard down." Sonic said, then regretted it seconds later when Amy jumped out from behind him and gave him a hug. Even Shadow burst out laughing.


	4. Chapter 4

_((Please note that I have absolutely no idea what a candy factory looks like or how candy is made, this is just based on what I can remember from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and what industrialised levels tend to look like in Sonic games ~ author))_

* * *

Dr. Robotnik's POW Candy factory looked just as ugly and tasteless as Sonic expected. It was difficult for a factory to be aesthetically pleasing, even in the ironic post-industrialist modern art sense but Dr. Robotnik won the world record for hideous factory architecture.

Its main body was a dome shape that couldn't decide whether it was supposed to be an egg or a Dr. Robotnik face. It had pipes and cooling vents leading out of it at all sorts of angles and it was connected to smaller buildings and machines outside the factory. In a vague attempt to make it look more child-friendly and less like a working factory, presumably in an attempt to lure children near so that they would have horrific industrial accidents, it was painted in the same stripes as the candy and surrounded by giant robotic statues of the evil scientist, all smiling, waving and singing a song about happy children all over the world. Sonic supposed he had to give the Doctor credit for one thing – the factory wasn't actively designed to cause as much pollution and waste as possible. There was only a small amount of smoke billowing out of the chimneys, none of the robots were trying to chop down the local trees or roboticise the wildlife and the town water supply hadn't turned bright pink yet. It genuinely just looked like it was there to produce candy. It even smelled of candy. Delicious, mouth-watering candy.

"Welcome to my factory!" said Robotnik, standing in front of the tall iron gates and throwing his arms back. He pressed a button on a device and two robots trundled forward and pulled open the gates, snapping the 'Welcome' ribbon in two. Fireworks went off in the background. The robots fetched Robotnik's floating egg-shaped chair and he jumped in it. It had just occurred to him that a tour of the factory would involve a lot of exercise, something he must avoid at all costs, if he tried to do so on foot. He waved them in through the front doors. A robot that looked like Omega but that was dressed as a maid staffed the reception desk.

"Engaging Greetings Mode. **BEEP!**" said the maid-bot, "Welcome, Dr. Robotnik. Are these your guests?"

"They're my valued friends, here for the guided tour of the factory." explained the Doctor, "They would be grateful if you went and brought them all a basket of free samples of our latest candy and a glass of POW drink each!"

"POW drink? What's that?" asked Cream. They watched the robot scuttle off through a back door.

"Oh, my factory doesn't just produce candy! I'm also going to be making soft drinks and chewing gum! They're still in development, so you're the first to know they even exist!"

"Cool. What else does it make? POW Chilli Dogs?" asked Sonic hopefully. He hadn't eaten a chilli dog all day and it was almost 8am.

"Well, we're still unsure as to what else would sell well. My market research bots are working on ideas. Chilli Dogs are probably out of the question. It doesn't fit well with our other products. Who would want to eat candy and Chilli Dogs in the same meal?"

"I wouldn't mind, as long as there were definitely Chilli Dogs."

"If you made them, you'd sell them all even if Sonic was your only customer." Tails promised him, "Just ask Big Basil's 24 Hour Chilli Dog Parlour."

"I'll bear that in mind." said Dr. Robotnik. He snapped his fingers and an Egg-bot hovered over and placed a clipboard in his outstretched hand. He started writing notes on it.

"Froggy says he's bored. He doesn't want to watch you big city types talk business all day. Frogs don't like that." Big told him, using the tone of grave wisdom used by children and giant cats with the mind of a child, "Frogs like candy."

"And so do I! I never thought I'd agree with a frog on something!" Dr. Robotnik pulled a lever on his chair and moved himself towards another exit, "We'd better get going - we're going to see the production process from start to finish! Now, who can tell me what candy is made of?"

"Ooh! Ooh! Me! I could tell you the entire molecular structure of the candy! I've analysed it thoroughly!" Tails jumped up and down.

"You have, have you?" the Doctor glared at him. His eyes narrowed. "Well, if you're so clever, tell me the secret ingredient! I bet you can't!"

Tails began listing all the ingredients he knew to be in the candy. "And there's some kind of energy signature my machines can't pick up."

"Ha! I knew it! My candy really is Tails-proof! Now nobody will be able to steal my business secrets!"

"Oh! I know! Is it love?" asked Cream, "You put your heart and soul into it, and so every tiny piece of candy matters to you, even the faulty pieces, which is why they will always be unique to you!"

"I agree that the candy is probably made out of souls." said Sonic.

By this time, they had traversed a small maze of corridors. Each corridor contained identical offices labelled 'Staff Only'. Robots ran back and forth carrying paperwork. At the end of the final corridor was a larger double door that opened automatically when Robotnik's chair floated through it. It opened out onto a balcony wide enough to fit them all walking side by side with easily enough room to spare. The balcony looked tiny compared to the overall size of the room. It was full of enormous metal vats with pipes leading to and from them. Pink sticky liquid poured out of the pipes into the vats and the robots sped about, pushing buttons, pulling levers, cleaning nozzles and generally trying to maintain the machinery while avoiding being swallowed up by it. Some of them were equipped with rotor blades so that they could reach the higher parts.

"These vats are where we store the molten candy." explained Dr. Robotnik, "It travels through those pipes over there to be poured into moulds, then to another machine to be cooled, then to quality control."

"Its all so enormous!" said Amy, "You could fit an entire Zone in here!"

"We're not a small operation. We produce a quarter of a million bags of candy per day." said Dr. Robotnik, "Ah, there's the secretary with our drinks."

Sonic took one of the glasses from the tray. The liquid looked a little like Mountain Dew but was bright pink. He sniffed it. It smelled of caffeine and possibly radiation.

"No thank you, I'm not thirsty." he said. Big grabbed it off him before he could return it to the secretary-bot.

"Froggy will have yours!" he declared, "Stupid robot didn't get him his own!"

"Um... I don't think its safe to give frogs that much caffeine..."

"Sonic, the frog tried to eat a Chaos Emerald and lived through it. It'll be fine." said Tails. Sonic shrugged and let Big feed the 'POW Drink' to his pet frog through a straw. He watched the others finish theirs too.

"Its delicious! You should try it, Sonic!" said Amy.

"Its not bad." said Cream, "Although its too sticky. I'm worried it'll get in my fur."

"Always a danger with soft drinks." agreed Tails, "I don't think they make them with us in mind."

"POW Drink must not stick to fur." Robotnik said out loud as he wrote on his clipboard, "If you're finished looking around here, lets go to the moulding room!"

The Doctor led them all across to the door on the other end of the balcony. The caffeine was already kicking in – Tails had begun to hover involuntarily and talk incredibly fast about the inconvenience of human-centric modern life to people with fur. Amy's voice was even more high-pitched than normal and Cream was bouncing, although this was what rabbits often did anyway. They were all annoying Sonic even more than they usually did. It was unlikely they would wind down any time today. He wished he had gone with the other team, only one of whom ate candy.

How were the other team doing, anyway? Had they infiltrated the building yet? If so, what had they discovered? A major flaw in the plan was that there was no way to contact each other in a non-emergency situation. It would look suspicious to use the communicators, even if he pretended it was a phone or camera, both of which were banned on the tour 'to prevent corporate espionage'. He wasn't sure what he was going to do if the other team were caught up in a situation where they couldn't use their communicators, or vice versa. He had to trust them to be able to handle themselves. Shadow was almost as capable as Sonic, Omega was a walking death machine and Rouge was good at not getting caught in the first place. With all these industrial hazards around, a party of hyperactive immature idiots to look after and a stupidly-dressed robot supplying them with even more sugar and caffeine, it was himself that Sonic needed to worry about.


	5. Chapter 5

The door said 'Strictly No Unauthorised Access' so Rouge felt it was her duty as a thief to break in.

Omega's footsteps clanked. His stealth field only obscured him from view – it didn't take into account how much noise he made when running down a metal corridor. Fortunately for them, the entire factory was full of the sound of clanking robots. There were two heading down the corridor in the opposite direction right now. Omega's head swivelled to watch them. He kept a beady red glowing optical sensor on every robot they saw. Most of them he dismissed instantly – they were maintenance robots or the occasional lightly armed security robot that he could easily take down if he needed to. He paid more attention to the robot they saw every now and then, passing down a corridor with a tray of drinks. It looked like Omega but wore a maid costume. Omega watched it arrive, watched it leave and stared at it whenever it stayed in one place. Rouge wondered whether Omega was concerned about the presence of a robot of the same model as himself – and therefore likely to be as dangerous as him – or whether he was wondering what such a robot would be doing wearing a maid costume. Or maybe – the thought made Rouge laugh quietly to herself – it was female and Omega had a crush on it.

Rouge herself had no problem staying out of sight. Shadow was using his usual stealth tactic of running too fast to be spotted by security cameras but Rouge preferred to stay in one place, preferably on the ceiling. She had quickly memorised the patrol patterns of the security robots and had hacked the door terminal to allow them access. They gained entrance to the factory without problems. Now they were heading down rather a dark corridor that gave the impression it wasn't used often, even by the robots. They hadn't seen one human being yet. A factory built by Doctor Robotnik was likely to be completely automated but it was still eerie, hearing no voices, only constant clanking, with nothing designed for human comfort.

They appeared to have entered some kind of shipping and delivery area. The robots that ran up and down the corridors were holding parcels and pushing trolleys. Some of them were packing the produce to be loaded onto trucks tomorrow, when the factory officially opened and the first batch of POW Candy was to hit the market. Others looked like incoming parcels.

Rouge almost screamed when Shadow suddenly appeared behind her and tapped her on the shoulder. He put a finger to his lips, then pointed to one of the robots with trolleys. The large crates on the trolley were black, making them difficult to spot in a black room even if you were a bat with a highly developed sonar, and had the GUN logo on them. Shadow indicated that he was going to follow. Rouge nodded her head. They couldn't see Omega but they got the impression he was following them.

The robot wheeled his trolley along the corridor, turned at a junction then entered a larger room that was piled high with similarly labelled crates. He started lifting the crates from the trolley and stacking them with the others. Rouge felt an urge to take a crowbar to one of the crates but there were quite a few robots in the room and she couldn't see a way to open a crate without revealing her presence to one of them. She thought about just waiting to see if the robots opened any of the crates. After a few minutes, this didn't happen. Shadow was looking increasingly bored and irritable and she was worried he might start to get reckless. The trolley robot finished offloading the crates and moved off with the trolley. He didn't return the way he came but went through a side door. Rouge decided to follow him.

This room was as large as the depot with the crates. It was badly lit but Rouge recognised the contents instantly. So did Shadow. She couldn't react in time to stop him running over to them, casually knocking the robot flying as he did so.

"Shadow, please don't destroy everything, at least wait until we have back-up..." Rouge pleaded.

"Shut up." snapped Shadow, using some words that wouldn't have made it into the final release of any of his games, even the Japanese versions.

The room was full of GUN containment units. The same kind that Shadow had been held in. All of them were empty.

Suddenly, the robot made a noise like a broken cuckoo clock, then tried to stand up. Something went 'crunch' and the robot dropped to the floor again, motionless this time. It wouldn't be setting off the alarm. At that moment, Omega came out of stealth. He was standing over the remains of the robot, carrying a clipboard.

"Where did you find that? Let's have a look at it, then!" she craned her neck to see what Omega was reading. She briefly sensed Shadow behind her, then the hedgehog darted out of the room. She did her best to follow him.

* * *

"... And as the candy goes along the conveyor belt, my team of quality control robots picks out all the faulty ones. They have highly tuned faulty candy detection sensors."

"How do you detect faulty candy?" asked Tails.

"How can candy even be faulty?" demanded Amy.

"What do you do with the candy if its faulty?" asked Cream, "You should totally sell it anyway at a lower price! I'd buy candy even if its faulty! Candy is like people – it doesn't have to be perfect to be loved!"

"One question at a time, damn y... I mean, please, valued customers!" Robotnik suppressed a snarl, pulling at his moustache for stress relief, "Firstly, the detectors work on a sonar principle. Properly made candy is solid except for a few air bubbles, whereas if it doesn't set right, it becomes flat or hollow and crunchy..."

Suddenly, the alarms went off. The security robots, who guarded the doors, followed Robotnik or passed through the corridors on their regular patrols, all swarmed out of the room in the same direction. Red lights flashed on and off. The maintenance robots hovered protectively around the machinery, some of which had stopped, some of which hadn't. Sonic heard the high-pitched whine of laser pistol fire, several hollow thuds and the sound of machines breaking. Somewhere fairly near here, a battle was raging. He guessed the other team were responsible somehow. He had just jumped onto the balcony railing and was about to launch himself at a security robot when Rouge came flying up from underneath the balcony, almost knocking him off the rail. She looked flustered. It wasn't like Rouge.

"Sonic! The candy!" she yelled, "POW candy is made out of Prisoners of War!"


	6. Chapter 6

"I can explain!" Dr. Robotnik waved his hands frantically, "You don't understand the context!"

"I don't think I need to know the details. We're taking you out of business!" yelled Sonic, "Rouge, you and I need to free the prisoners. Tails, find a way to halt production. Everyone else, hold them off."

"Um... I couldn't find any actual prisoners, just the cages and the paperwork from G.U.N." said Rouge.

"You won't find any. The Commander hasn't delivered the next batch yet. We had a business disagreement."

"Shut up, Eggy! This is going too far even for you!" Sonic snapped.

"Sonic, what is going on?" demanded Amy.

"You should really stop eating the candy." explained Sonic. There was a massive explosion as stray fire from Omega's laser cannons breached the pressured container of one of the machines. While he seemed to be holding his own – and having fun while he did so – he was greatly outnumbered. Tails gave him some covering fire. While he didn't have his own battle walker, he had taken a gun from a robot that Big pushed over and sat on, and he was now hovering in the air, using his tails as propellers. The girls didn't really understand what was happening – Sonic wasn't sure if he wanted to explain something like that to them – but they knew a fight when they saw one. Amy had retrieved her hammer from her handbag and was smashing it into the faces of any robots she came across. A thought occurred to Sonic, "Where's Shadow?"

"You tell me! He got in one of his moods. He ran off before I could tell which direction he was heading in."

"Oh, great." Sonic sighed, "Wait... Robotnik, did you say the Commander is part of this?"

"If I tell you, will you stop wrecking my factory?" Robotnik snatched a gun from one of his robots and fired at Omega but missed.

"Shadow was watching the Commander when I caught up with him. I bet he's gone to pay him a visit!" said Sonic.

"Well, you're the only one who's going to be able to catch up with him again." said Rouge, "We can hold our own here. You should leave now if you don't want to be too late."

"Too late for what? Shadow killing the Commander? I've half a mind to let him. I knew he didn't exactly uphold the Geneva Convention but this is ridiculous."

"SYNTAX ERROR - GENEVA CONVENTION NOT FOUND. IGNORING. **BEEP!**" commented Omega before spraying a wide arc of laser fire and hitting six robots at once. Twelve more took their place, concentrating all their fire on what was now undoubtedly the largest threat in the building. Omega made an irritated clockwork noise as he was hit squarely in the chest. His energy shield was depleted and now he was relying on his armour plating. Sonic was suddenly a little worried that the robot wouldn't hold out. Suddenly, the doors were blown off their hinges by an explosive force. Standing in the ruins of the doorway was another robot like Omega. It was the maid-bot.

"REGISTERING COMPANION. ENGAGING PROTECT PROTOCOL." said Omega. Throwing three robots off him, he clanked over to his new friend. They beeped at each other and their lights flashed on and off in unison. Then they stood back to back, ready to face any foe.

"Aww, that's so sweet!" commented Cream.

"Yes, Cream, but don't you think Omega would like some medical attention? You've been standing there watching us all for half an hour without making a move to heal any of us." Rouge sighed.

"Oh... oh yeah!" Cream's ears wilted, "I knew I'd forgotten something. Thank you, Rouge!"

"No big deal." Rouge said dryly, "Do you remember where the G.U.N base is or do I need to come with you?"

"I'll be fine. You know where the prisoners are. Please check for survivors. If you can find any at all, rescue them. That's our first priority." He jumped into the air, bouncing off some of the flying robots like a pinball before escaping out of a convenient hole in the ceiling, made earlier by Omega. Sonic wasn't the only one now absent. She just caught sight of Robotnik as he escaped out of the far balcony door.

"I must excuse myself." she told Amy and Cream, "I'm going on an egg hunt."

* * *

Their tour interrupted so early, they hadn't actually been in the factory that long. It was dinner time when Sonic jumped off the roof, landing on a security robot's head and manually reformatting his hard disk the less gentle way. The town square was packed with people on their lunch break. It made it more difficult for Sonic to maneouvre on foot but he wasn't planning to go along the ground anyway. At least he could hide in the crowd easily while he tried to get away from the factory before anyone linked the explosions and wrecked guard robots to himself. He paused only to grab a chilli dog from a stand (after a few seconds' consideration, he made this five – he might not get enough time to come back today) before he climbed a wall and jumped onto a roof.

"Damn, which way IS the G.U.N base?" he asked himself, "I thought it was signposted from here. Did they take the sign down just to confuse me? G.U.N really are becoming a force for evil!"

He remembered that he had a communicator and he could contact Shadow with it. He might not answer if he was in a bad enough mood but it was worth a try. He dialled '9' for Shadow.

"What?" yelled Shadow's voice, "I'm trying to infiltrate a military base!"

"Want help with that?"

"I can do it on my own. I've done it before." he growled, "The Commander's really going to pay this time!"

"Are you just looking for an excuse to settle a grudge against the Commander or are you actually going to make an attempt to rescue the prisoners?"

"Prisoners? What prisoners?"

"Never mind. Look, I'm a little lost."

Shadow burst out laughing. However, the thought of Sonic making a mistake and relying on him was enough of an ego trip to get Shadow to actually give him directions.

"Thanks, man, I owe you a Chilli Dog." said Sonic.

"I don't want a Chilli Dog, you imbecile." Shadow growled, "Don't wait up for me. I'm going in."

"Don't kill him until I know what's going on!" yelled Sonic, but Shadow had already cut off communications. The hedgehog shrugged. At least it meant that he would be able to follow the trail of destruction once he got near the base. A stealthy approach was out of the question – Shadow didn't sound in the mood for subtlety. To be honest, Sonic wasn't. He had spent all day following the others around at their snail's pace on that boring tour while Robotnik, as per usual, lied out of his ass. He just wanted to find out who was responsible, teach them a lesson and fix the problem.

He reached the base to find it in complete panic. Sirens were blaring. If this was Shadow's work, he had already caused even more trouble than Sonic expected he would be able to manage in such a short period of time. Sonic knocked out a couple of sentry robots, disabling the nearby security camera just in case, then climbed in through a ventilation shaft. He hoped that the sheer amount of chaos would make it difficult for them to mobilise in time to stop him reaching the Commander. If he was lucky, they hadn't spotted him yet and were still looking for Shadow. All he had to worry about were the automated defence systems and the few patrols he couldn't avoid.

It took a while, several trashed robots and some slight singes to his spikes from a close shave with a laser fence, but he found the Commander in his office. He had been studying a wall-sized electronic map of space. What looked like a DS stylus lay on the table next to an abandoned cup of coffee. Stood on top of his desk was Shadow. He had a gun pointed to the Commander's head. His eyes glowed pure red. The Commander also had a gun pointed at Shadow's head and was trying to look past him at the map.

"Don't interfere, Sonic!" Shadow snarled, "I'm avenging Maria! I have all the excuse I need to kill him now!"

"The way you're acting will make us no better than him!" said Sonic, "Commander, I have questions for you."

"Go ahead."

"Why are you selling people to Dr. Robotnik to be made into food?"

"What? Oh. They're not people."

"That's monstrous, Commander. Everyone is a person, even if they fight on the other side to you."

"No, really. They're literally not people." said the Commander, "You don't know much about G.U.N, do you?"

"We know that you're murderous scum!" Shadow snarled.

"G.U.N haven't been involved in any wars against humans for ten years. After our history of paranormal experiences, we decided to re-invent ourselves as an interplanetary organisation. We exist to counteract threats to the planet." he said, "Demonic beings, bio-engineered super-hedgehogs, Dr. Robotnik and invasions from outer space. Six months ago, our satellites started receiving signals from outer space. We were then attacked. We retaliated and it turned into open conflict. "

"You're fighting aliens?" asked Sonic, "Wow."

"We managed to capture a few of them. They're pretty much impossible to actually destroy – they're some kind of energy based beings – but they can be contained. They go into a dormant status when captured as they appear paranoid about running out of energy. This energy source was unlike anything else we had encountered before so we were naturally curious about it."

"And so you decided it would be a good idea to EAT it?"

"Their energy is difficult not to absorb. Its similar to radiation. You can absorb it just by standing too close to them." said the Commander, "It had... strange effects on our soldiers. They seemed more animated. Like they had more energy."

"The way Tails felt when he ate the candy." said Sonic, "I thought he was just on a sugar high. I'm not satisfied, Commander. Not only does this whole 'aliens' story sound completely made up, it isn't right to do this even to aliens. They might be sentient for all we know. And it certainly isn't right to sell candy made out of aliens to small children! Do you even know that the energy is safe?"

"We've done extensive research! We fed it to everyone in the base!"

"How can you co-operate with Dr. Robotnik in any case? You know he can't be up to anything good! You've always been enemies!"

"Like I said, you don't understand the whole situation." said the Commander, "We can't afford to pick and choose our allies any more. We have to accept any help we can get."

"What the hell are you on about?"

"If you'll kindly let me get my stylus and stop standing in the way of the map, I'll show you." the Commander glared at Shadow. Sonic motioned for him to move. He did so, but didn't stop pointing the gun at him, "There's a reason we haven't been up to date on our shipments to Robotnik. We're losing the battle."


	7. Chapter 7

Shadow burst out laughing again at the Commander's Words.

Commander Bulzome poked a section of the map with his stylus and it zoomed in to show them the G.U.N satellite, located in outer orbit. Strange lights were zipping around and occasionally crashing into the satellite's hull. Fires were breaking out where the barrage was most concentrated. While they were small, there were a lot of them and they were fast even by Sonic's standards. He was having trouble making out their shapes. They were a variety of colours and if they hadn't been so destructive, the effect would have been quite spectacular, like an exploding rainbow. The thin cyan ones were the fastest. The violet ones with large round heads and plant-like appendages were the most destructive, devouring anything they touched and growing larger as they absorbed it. The red and orange ones were the ones causing the fires.

"They're too fast for the automatic targetting systems to deal with. I keep having to switch to manual." said the Commander. He poked one of the wisps with his stylus and a small band of flying drones converged on it. It had already moved out of the way. He poked it again. He was very good at it but it still seemed like a terribly inefficient way of fighting a battle.

"That's not going to work. There must be a better way." mused Sonic.

"I'm open to suggestions! Maybe you could go up there yourself? You're the only thing I can think of that's faster than those things!"

"A trip into space? It might be fun. Don't know how I'd get out there, though. I can't breathe in space."

Technically, Super Sonic could, but he had only just given the emeralds back to Knuckles and didn't want to annoy the Echidna too much. He also didn't much like using that method because he ran the risk of running out of chaos energy too far away from the base and killing himself. He hated being Super Sonic in general. It can't be healthy having that much chaos energy in your system.

"Well, at least take over the stylus! Your reaction time is better than mine!"

"I still think you'd be better than me at it. You look like you've been practising for months. I think you've got a good pattern going there. Mind that yellow one!"

"Why aren't you taking this seriously? We're the planet's last line of defenAAAARGH ALMOST GOT IT!" he screamed and jabbed the screen with the stylus in a way that would probably ruin it if he kept on doing it. Sonic noticed that there were teeth marks on the stylus where he had been chewing it out of frustration, "I promise I won't sell any more of them to Robotnik if you just stop them killing us all! He was always late with his payments anyway!"

"I guess Tails might know what to do." said Sonic, "I'll go and fetch him. But you've gotta keep your promise, okay? And release the prisoners you have! And let us in through the front gates next time!"

"Only if Shadow stops trying to kill me!"

"Humph. You're too pathetic to kill." Shadow sneered at him. He lowered the gun and the two hedgehogs walked out.

* * *

"The aliens don't actually seem to be trying to approach the planet at all." Tails pointed out, "Are you sure they're invading?"

"They went straight for our satellite without any warning!"

"Are you sure its not just your satellite they're trying to attack?" asked Tails.

"They probably just attack anything they see! Either that or they've figured out our function and they're trying to weaken Earth's defences first! I don't know how intelligent they are. I can't communicate with them."

"Have they made any kind of attempt to communicate at all?"

"They transmit some kind of radio signals but they mostly just completely scramble our communicators. For all we know, that could be the whole point. The frequency isn't readable at all."

"I thought up some ideas when I was analysing the candy in my lab. I didn't have time to put them into practice but I made some concrete notes while we were on the tour."

"... you did? That was fast!" said Sonic.

"Someone here needs to be able to think faster than you act or we'd never be able to plan what we do." commented Tails, "If you let me borrow your laboratory, I can work on some way of interpreting the signals."

"If you really must. I have nothing down there I don't want you to see. All the good inventions are at the satellite, being fired."

"Alien life." Tails sighed in awe, "I thought I'd been picking up signals from outer space but I didn't think they were actual extra-terrestrials! This is amazing! And a new form of energy! Think of the possibilities!"

"Stop encouraging each other." Sonic warned him, "The aliens are going free, then we're going to stop them approaching the planet!"

"Aw, but..."

"Go and do your science!"

"Yay! Science!" Tails ran off, singing a happy song. The Commander went back to yelling at the screen. Sonic wondered which one would break first, the man's sanity or his stylus. He had to admit the Commander was extraordinarily good at whatever he was doing, though.

"I practice a lot." said the Commander in a slightly paranoid voice, "That, and all the cyan energy I absorbed. It makes me more accurate. I can concentrate better. Sometimes I wonder if I've had too much, though. I can't sleep."

Sonic shrugged, "I can fix lots of problems – you get good at doing random things for people when you're a hero – but I'm afraid I'm no sleep therapist. Maybe you should cut down on the coffee. Stop playing that game."

"It isn't a game!" he screamed.

"Chill out." said Sonic. He shook his head and walked out. He was already bored. The stylus thing was repetitive after a while. He had seen a food canteen on his way down the corridor. Maybe they served chilli dogs. He had some time to kill before Tails figured out what the problem was with the aliens. Probably not that much time, considering how fast Tails could work on a science project, but enough time to do something. He should probably check up on the others. Rouge answered his call. She was tracking Dr. Robotnik to try and figure out what he was actually planning to do with the energy. She had lost sight of Omega; After systematically destroying the entire factory, he had gone off somewhere with his 'new girlfriend'. Big had gone back to his home in the Mystic Ruins, apparently very angry with Sonic that his trip to the city had ended in so much stress. Froggy said he never wanted to come back to the city. Amy was looking for Sonic. Rouge promised not to tell her where he was.

The next day, Tails had news for them.

* * *

"Its your satellite." he said, "The frequency of its lighting is interfering with the way they calculate their path through space. They think its one of the cyan alien's refractors. They went off balance and crashed into it, then they were angry with it so they decided to destroy it to make it stop. If you turn off all the lights for a while, they'll probably calm down and go away."

"What? But we can't turn off the lights without shutting down the entire satellite! It takes a week to power up again! We'll lose millions!"

"And that's less important than not starting a war with an alien race?" asked Sonic.

"Think of in terms of the benefits of what you've learned." said Tails.

"Its worth nothing if I have to release those aliens! We may never see them again! We've lost our energy source!"

"But you won't lose the knowledge you've already gained, including the fact that the aliens exist." said Tails, "We can work on a way to communicate with them properly! Then maybe they'll come back!"

"And you can finally get some sleep." Sonic pointed out.

"I suppose so!" the Commander sighed, "I'll see to it right now." He poked a different place on the screen with the stylus. A dialogue box popped up and he started interacting with the satellite controls. After a few minutes going through options, he found the emergency shutdown dialogue and managed to convince the computer that he really did want to turn everything off.

"It'll take a while for everything to shut down. Fortunately for us, everyone evacuated as soon as the attacks started, its all automated up there."

Sonic watched on the screen as the lights winked off one by one. It was already having an effect on the wisps. The ones who were about to ram into the satellite stopped what they were doing and changed their course, heading back off into space. They disappeared from view as they headed off the edge of the screen. There was no way of telling where they went.


	8. Chapter 8

"Boo!"

Tails looked up to discover a jester, upside down in mid-air, pulling a face at him.

"NiGHTs!" the fox's face brightened, "I haven't seen you in ages!"

"You haven't? Oh." the jester looked confused. Tails had no idea how much time had passed for NiGHTs. That was like trying to figure out how much time had passed in a dream, "Well, I'm a very busy person. Want to fly around and around in the sky?"

"Okay!" Tails set his twin bushy tails in motion until he built up enough speed and then jumped, letting them carry him along. In the hazy logic of the dream, he could fly much faster and with less effort. He was no match for NiGHTs, who didn't so much fly as dance, skate, twirl and pirouette through the sky.

"Sonic still doesn't believe in you. Isn't that terrible? You should go into his dreams as well so that he knows you exist!"

"I don't want to! His dreams are really boring!" said NiGHTs, playfully flying in a loop around Tails' head, "Running or eating! That's he all he dreams about! Its like watching a dog dreaming! Anyway, I didn't come here to discuss Sonic." He suddenly looked serious, uncharacteristically so for the child-like dream-being, "There's something wrong with this town."

"I'd say! You wouldn't believe the sort of thing that's been happening here!" Tails told him, "I didn't know you were paying attention, though."

"I wasn't. I felt the Ideya fluctuations from a mile off." NiGHTs frowned, "The Ideya grew very rapidly, then fell again. Now they're starting to fall below the baseline. They don't look like they're going to slow down."

"I don't really understand dream-speak, I'm afraid." said Tails. Psychology confused him. It was such a vague science.

"Everyone's head is messed up." translated NiGHTs, "What exactly happened here?"

"Well, it was a while ago now." Tails scratched his head, "I thought it had all died down. I haven't noticed anything wrong. I mean, a lot of people are irritable and lazy but that's nothing new."

NiGHTs listened to the story with something as much resembling patience as he could possibly manage, which meant he constantly spun around in circles in the air and occasionally flew off somewhere mid-sentence.

"Alien energy, eh? I bet that was a sight to see." NiGHTs grinned, "I'll have to try and find them myself. Their dreams must be completely different to human dreams."

"Do you think the alien energy is responsible for... the problems you mentioned?"

"How many people do you think were exposed to it?"

"Well... there were a lot of people eating the free samples. I mean, candy! For free! Who wouldn't?" said Tails, "I imagine the G.U.N soldiers were exposed to a lot more. Sonic was saying that he thought the Commander was acting strange! Like he'd had way too much coffee. Is that what you were talking about?"

"A massive flare of blue ideya?" asked NiGHTs, "Blue means intelligence."

"Does being able to operate a computer really fast mean intelligence?" asked Tails, "Come to think of it, it was the blue alien he'd been exposed to. Like I said, he only looked stressed out. It isn't like everyone's running around with axes trying to kill each other or anything."

"Well, they won't be up to much now, with such low Ideya." said NiGHTs, "Thank you for telling me what's going on. I was worried Wizeman was attacking the waking world again."

"Do you think its serious?" asked Tails, "Do you want me to do something?"

"Its probably something I'd be better at fixing myself. You can help me, though. I just need a little more information about who's been affected and how."

"I'll ask around." promised Tails.

"Thanks." NiGHTs yawned, "I'm bored now. Let's have a race. To the clock tower and back?"

"You're on!" said Tails. The two friends jumped into the sky and flew towards the distant spire. NiGHTs easily won.

* * *

Tails enjoyed flying around with NiGHTs but it left him feeling less than refreshed in the morning. Sleep with too many dreams wasn't the best quality sleep to begin with. Dreaming in Nightopia felt artificial, like it wasn't 'real' dreaming, so it was often even less satisfying. NiGHTs could usually help him by boosting his Ideya but he said he had to conserve his energy.

Sonic was usually either still not awake or still out on a fifty mile hike when Tails woke up, what with not having any settings between 'overdrive' and 'off'. Either way, he was nowhere to be found. Tails made breakfast, then went into town. There were less people in the town square than usual. The tourists who had come to see the opening of the new factory had gone home, what with the factory suffering an unfortunate industrial catastrophe and completely burning to the ground despite being made of reinforced titanium. Omega had been very thorough. As far as Tails knew, Omega had no concept of why one would want to take prisoners, never mind why it would be wrong to eat them, so he was probably just enjoying trashing Robotnik's stuff. However, it was more than that. Even the people who worked in and around the town centre, who were there every day without fail, were missing. The ones who were there looked listless. The Chilli Dog vendor was asleep face down on his cash register!

"Ahem!" said Tails.

"Zzz... snort... I'M NOT ASLEEP!" yelled the vendor, accidentally knocking the cash register on the floor with a loud 'Ka-Ching' noise.

"Its okay, I won't tell on you. I'm just here to ask a few questions."

"Tell Sonic yes, we are doing a bulk discount deal." said the vendor as he gathered the money up in a bundle using his 'Big Basil's Chilli Dog Emporium' shirt.

"No, its not about Chilli Dogs at all!" said Tails, "I just wanted to know why everyone is so tired lately and how long its been going on for."

The vendor shrugged, "It must be a heat wave."

"Its not warm."

"Oh, yeah." the vendor's face went blank.

"Did you eat the POW Candy when the factory was open?"

"Of course I did! They were handing out free stuff right next to my stall!"

"How much would you say you had?"

"Far too much." admitted the vendor, "Why, do you think its, like, a massive sugar crash? They don't normally last that long!"

"I'm not sure." said Tails, "Did the rest of the employees eat the candy and were they affected?"

"Umm, could we talk later? There's a customer behind you."

"Actually, I'm looking for Tails here. If you please."

Tails looked behind him. It was a man in a G.U.N uniform. There were dark rings under his eyes and he looked rather gaunt.

"Are you okay?" asked Tails.

"Could you come with me? The Commander needs to see you urgently."

"He couldn't see me in person?"

"He's very ill." said the soldier.

"Is anyone going to buy anything?" demanded the vendor.

"Later, its kind of an emergency."

"I'll see what I can do to help." promised Tails. He followed the man back to the G.U.N base. His friend had been right, as usual. It wasn't over. Things were starting to go wrong in the town again.

* * *

"How long has he been like that?"

"All day yesterday and today."

Commander Bulzome didn't move. The readings on all the machines he was strapped to were stable but very low. He somehow managed to look imposing even strapped to a bunch of life support machines that maintained most of his basic functions. He looked like some kind of murderous cyborg waiting for someone to hit the 'on' switch.

"His life signs aren't in any immediate danger but he's in a deep coma." said Tails, "How much of the alien energy was he exposed to?"

"A lot." said the GU.N chief medic, a short, bearded man, "It was before we realised the energy could even be absorbed like that. He was one of the people who were hit by the first surge in the accident."

"He doesn't seem to be emitting that much." said Tails. He had made a machine to scan the level of alien energy both in the background and being radiated by objects.

"Most of it has left him. The trouble began after it started wearing off."

"Oh, it wears off? That's nice to know!"

"The energy seems to be highly addictive." said the medic, "At first we thought people were just crashing. The more you have of it at once, the worse it feels when you come back down. The problem was, it didn't wear off. People just got worse until we exposed them to more."

"Like an addiction?"

"That's what I'm assuming. We tried giving people a steady supply of it to wean them off it but we only had so much of the energy in storage. We ran out of supplies and we had to let the rest of the Wisps go as part of the treaty Sonic made us sign."

"Oh, no. So we can't just wait for it to leave people's systems." said Tails, suddenly wishing that Omega hadn't destroyed the factory quite so irrevocably. Maybe there could have been some energy sources left inside.

"Exactly. And now we're worried we'll lose the Commander altogether." said the medic, "He's not responding to any ordinary addiction treatment."

"The addiction could be psychological rather than physical."

"Well, how would I give him therapy? I can't even wake him up!"

"I know a... a way to treat some psychological problems from inside the dreaming mind." said Tails.

"What, can your machines do EVERYTHING?"

"Its not exactly a machine." Tails blushed. He wasn't sure how well a veteran field medic would react to talk of flying purple jesters who live in people's dreams, "Anyway, it might work on at least some people. I'm not exactly sure how it works myself, to be honest."

"Well, if it has a chance of working, please use it. If we lose him, his second-in-command will take over. She's a monster. Everyone in the base is terrified of her." the medic shuddered.

"It won't be immediate. I'll need some more details of the exact effects, who was affected and how strongly." said Tails.

"I've been studying it thoroughly myself so I can give you some of the information right now." said the medic, reaching for a clipboard on his desk, "I never did approve of this damn project. You don't treat their prisoners like that, aliens or no. They'll try and eat me next. I'll be ready for them, with this clipboard to hit them with."

"That's a scary thought!" Tails imagined the entire G.U.N army shuffling around the base like ghouls trying to cannibalise each other. It was like a zombie film he watched last week.

The medic shrugged, "They're getting what they deserved in my opinion. Karma for treating their prisoners wrong. Its not like we can even apologise. We can't communicate with them."

Tails vaguely wondered if NiGHTs could talk to aliens. He had a very weird way of thinking and he presumably met other life forms, if they were capable of sleeping and dreaming. Tails himself had been trying to develop a way to communicate with the aliens but they had left before he actually got to the stage where he had any way at all to interact with one. He sort of understood their primal needs, what made them attack, what they fed off, what scared them away.

"Wait..." he stopped, "Earlier on, the Commander told me the aliens were terrified of running out of energy."

"They'd shut down indefinitely before they let themselves burn out."

"Did you ever find out what happens when one of them does run out of energy?"

"It wasn't worth it. They regenerated slightly if you didn't drain them dry. We were worried it would really cause something dangerous to happen."

"Medic, I think that's what might be happening." said Tails, "I think the energy in people's systems is running out and its having the same effect."

"That would fit with a theory I had." he said, "It was a little far-fetched, so I didn't really make too much of it."

"Tell me. Any ideas are helpful."

"Well, if the aliens are made of energy... maybe its possible to absorb a whole one. An entire, conscious alien."

"One that's running out of energy!"

"Even if you don't absorb a whole one, an entire alien could be present in one place if its consciousness gets absorbed. I mean, human consciousness is a mystery, I have no idea how alien consciousness works!"

"Me neither." admitted Tails. _But NiGHTs might. I just hope I have time to see him again. I really don't feel like going to sleep. _


	9. Chapter 9

From Tails' aerial view, high above the tallest building in the town, it looked like the Christmas lights had been put up early. Thousands of coloured lights of varying size and brightness arranged in clusters where the townspeople slept. Like all large towns, it didn't really sleep at night but Tails had managed to encourage everyone he needed to go to sleep at roughly the same time. The fox could now see the world as NiGHTs saw it – the Ideya, the hopes and dreams and inspirations of the people were clearly visible.

The jester flew over to one of the larger clusters and hovered there, his arms folded and his eyes closed.

"I can hear you in there!" he yelled suddenly, "I can hear you thinking! Ideya don't think! You do a really bad impression!"

Some of the lights began to ripple and twist as though they were reflections on a pond. Patches of light began to split off from their main bodies and the new shapes began to rise into the air. Slowly, their shapes changed to that of the Wisps. They hovered around NiGHTs. On the edge of his audible range, Tails could just hear some kind of hissing static with a sing-song rhythm.

"You can't just hide in people's Ideya and drain them! Ideya isn't the same as your energy source! You're interfering with other people's personalities and you'll damage your own as well!" explained NiGHTs. There was a flurry of high-speed responses as all of the Wisps tried to talk over each other.

"What are they saying?" asked Tails.

"I think they're having trouble freeing themselves. A lot of them were absorbed deep into the Ideya by accident." said NiGHTs, "Some of them are stuck fast or tangled up, or even in more than one Ideya. Then there are the ones who are very low on energy. Its not safe to move them."

"Can you do anything for them?"

"I can try. I've untangled Ideya that got into a mess before. It shouldn't be too difficult, compared to dealing with someone with sixteen personalities. Hopefully these things can be boosted in the same way you boost Ideya." said NiGHTs, rubbing his hands together, "I need to concentrate fully on what I'm doing, though, so you'll have to protect me if anything goes wrong. Remember what I told you?"

"In my own dream, I can be as strong as I want." said Tails. _SIXTEEN personalities?_

NiGHTs closed his eyes again and started muttering under his breath. Occasionally he waved his arms around like a conductor – or like the Commander with his stylus screen thing – and the Ideya moved, changing in shape or texture, growing brighter or dimmer, some merging or splitting off. The Wisps seemed to react to this. More Wisps rose from the Ideya clusters, some of them disappeared, others looked more energised and generally healthier.

Suddenly there was a deep static growl, like a particularly masculine version of Giygas. Something flared up in the middle of one of the Ideya clusters. The Wisps darted away from it like billiard balls. It was a sickly shade of dark purple and had tendrils like the roots of a zombie tree. It opened a jagged maw and lunged at NiGHTs.

"LOOK OUT!" screamed Tails. I'm not fast enough to reach this thing in time, he realised. It looks like it'd swallow me whole anyway. He remembered NiGHTs' words. He was a small vulnerable young fox but he needn't be. Not in a dream. If he had the choice, what would he become?

Tails closed his eyes and thought of the biggest, most heavily armed battle walker he had ever drawn up even the vaguest prototypes for. If he had been inspired to invent it – if he had dreamt it up – it must exist here. He added some more bombs and missiles and an extra layer of armour plating to his mental image. When he opened his eyes again, he was sitting in the pilot's seat of his creation. For some reason that he was sure must relate to some dark part of his subconscious he never wanted to open a window to, there were furry dice hanging from the dashboard. The engines roared as he launched the battle walker into the sky.

The monster didn't spot him at first. He pulled down the big red lever and a cluster of homing missiles flew towards it, hitting it squarely in its back. It screamed and its tentacles writhed. Tails darted out of the way before one of the thrashing tentacles could hit him, then fired his lasers, burning straight through two of the tentacles.

"What IS this monster?" yelled Tails. While it looked scorched and angry, he was doing very little damage to it.

"I think this is what happens when they run out of energy!" yelled NiGHTs.

"How do I stop it? Can't you put more energy into it?"

"Not once its completely depleted! I can only boost what's there!" said NiGHTs. The monster lashed out at him. Tails fired a cluster of missiles to attract its attention again, retreating while firing at it constantly to draw it away from the jester. NiGHTs was still busy helping the other wisps. Tails didn't want him making another mistake and adding more Nega-Wisps to the battle. Now it realised that he was the more dangerous target, it became more interested in him. It flung itself at him, swinging its tentacles around in a frenzy. Tails barely rolled away fast enough to avoid being caught up in the furious attack. He was still hit a glancing blow that knocked him spinning away. He managed to regain control of his machine but he felt a little nauseous.

_If only Sonic was here_, he thought. Then he stopped himself. _You can't rely on Sonic for everything,_ he rebuked himself mentally, _you've grown out of that long ago!_

Then another part of him said, _But throwing Sonic at this thing would be the best strategy at this point. He would be faster and do more damage than any machine you can make. What's more, it would mean that you would be out of the battle entirely, rather than being in the middle of it, depending on machine that's breakable. Its not cowardice to step out of a battle you can't survive if you have the ability to direct it remotely. _He thought about the Commander and his stylus-screen-thing again. A stylus appeared in his hand and suddenly he was a thousand miles away, looking down at the battle. He poked the Nega-Wisp with the stylus and Sonic flew out of nowhere.

Then he realised that it wasn't Sonic. Sonic wasn't actually spherical with a star shape in the middle, just curled-up-hedgehog-shaped, and he didn't glow bright blue. It was a blue Ideya.

NiGHTs was flying towards him, showing off his acrobatic moves like a bored student pretending to be a rock star in front of a shop security camera. He pressed his face against the screen and stuck his tongue out. Tails laughed.

Suddenly, he was woken from sleep by Sonic shaking him violently.

* * *

"Tails, what the HELL? Why are you waving the map pointer at me and laughing at me?" demanded the hedgehog, "If you're going to sleepwalk, why can't you do it like a normal person instead of a lunatic?"

"What the... at least I don't chase my tail in my sleep!" yelled Tails.

"I DO NOT CHASE MY TAIL!" yelled Sonic, "Who told you that? And don't make up some story about a flying purple jester again!"

"Good morning to you too, Sonic." said Tails, yawning.

"Its not morning, you slept for most of the day." said Sonic, "The chilli dog stall was about to close so I went to buy my own. Sorry, I didn't save any for you."

"Is he okay? He seemed a little run down the last time I saw him."

"What, the vendor? He gets ill?" Sonic shook his head, "Guess who I saw at the café across the road!"

"The one with the scary old lady?" asked Tails.

"Yeah... the Commander was there, just sitting and drinking tea! What do you think he was up to?"

"I don't know. Maybe he just likes tea? I hear they do a nice cup of tea there." Tails shrugged, "Although this IS the scary old lady we're talking about. We should probably check she's not making the tea out of cats."

"I should probably check up on it myself. If I don't, Shadow will get there first and wreck the place."

"I could do with a nice cup of tea." agreed Tails. Sleeping for too long was just as exhausting as not sleeping for long enough, especially when you had such intense dreams. If the Commander is up and about, NiGHTs must have been successful. He was the worst affected and it sounds like everything else has settled down. Tails only hoped that the Nega-Wisp was defeated, or at least that NiGHTs made it out alive. He had woken up before he saw the end result. The only real way to know was to wait until it was time to go to sleep again and pray that he could actually get back to Nightopia. Now wasn't the time for sleep, though. Now was time for tea.


End file.
